The US Didn't Invade Iran, But Malware Will

Be careful when receiving an email with a subject line such as "Third World War has begun", "20000 US Soldiers in Iran", or "US Army crossed Iran's borders". It most certainly contains a link leading to a webpage specially crafted to infect your machine with malware.

The page featurs a video player that allegedly runs video content about the invasion. Under the player there's a short text reading the following:

"Just now US Army's Delta Force and US Air Force have invaded Iran. Approximately 20000 soldiers crossed the border into Iran and broke down the Iran's Army resistance. The video made by US soldier was made today morning. Click on the video to see the first minutes of the beginning of World War III. God save us".

As expected, it's just a hoax made up to “enable users” to get infected with the Troj/Tibs-UO trojan. The malware offer also includes a malicious JavaScript dubbed Mal/ObfJS-AY.

"Receiving or reading the emails themselves does not mean you are infected - but visiting the link contained in them, or trying to watch the video, is definitely a bad idea. Once your computer is under the control of hackers they could steal your personal information to commit identity theft, or use your PC to spam out junk mail to millions of people around the world," said Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant at Sophos.

Needless to say, such attempts won't prove very successful with people having at least the decency to double check the news with legitimate websites.